The bathing of infants can be a difficult process and a frustrating experience for the parents or other caregivers. Infants tend to be very active during bath times, whether the experience is a pleasant one or an unpleasant one for the infant. Infants will grasp and pull on objects within their reach, will splash water, place objects in their mouths, etc.
When an infant is bathed in a conventional bathtub the splashing, grasping, and pulling may not, in and of themselves, cause a significant problem, but the use of a conventional bathtub is often a problem for the caregiver. A conventional bathtub is at floor level, so the caregiver must bend, stoop, kneel, etc. in very uncomfortable positions, while holding or supporting the infant. Further, the entire bathtub must be filled with water to achieve the desired depth, even though the infant occupies only a very small part of the bathtub. The prior art includes devices to be placed in a conventional bathtub to facilitate bathing, but these devices do not fully address the problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,111 to Chou, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,871 to Wheeler are illustrations of prior art devices designed to be placed in a conventional bathtub to position and support an infant for bathing. While these devices address some of the problems and are useful within their limitations, they do not alleviate the problems associated with the placement of the tub at floor level.
As a result of the difficulties with the use of a conventional bathtub for bathing infants, with or without support devices, alternative approaches are often used. One alternative approach involves the use of a free standing infant tub that may be placed on a counter or table. While such tubs help a caregiver eliminate the bending and some other problems associated with the use of a conventional bathtub, they create other problems. For example, water must be carried to the free standing tub, or the tub filled and then carried to the place where it will be used. Similarly, after the infant is bathed, the water must be dipped out of the free standing tub or the tub must be carried to be dumped. Further, the infant can easily splash water out of the tub onto surrounding surfaces, damaging them and/or creating a cleaning problem. In addition, the free standing tubs are large and bulky, and difficult to store.
Many caregivers bathe infants in sinks, such as a kitchen sink. Again, this approach solves many of the problems associated with the use of a conventional bathtub, and also eliminates problems with the use of free standing tubs. However, bathing an infant in a bare sink is not without problems. In a typical sink the infant can reach the sink faucet, faucet handles, and drain plug. The infant being bathed may turn faucet handles, place the faucet end in its mouth, pull the sink plug, etc. Devices intended to be placed in a sink to support an infant are known in the prior art, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,552 to Gurolnick, by and U.S. Pat. No. 245,861 to Elder, for a device which could be used in a sink. However, such devices do not prevent the infant from reaching faucets, etc., and are further bulky and difficult to store. They further do not control or restrain splashing of water over the relatively low edge of the sink.
There remains a need for a simple, inexpensive, easily stored device to assist a caregiver in bathing an infant in a sink, while preventing the infant from reaching faucets, the sink plug, and other adjacent objects, and while containing splashes.